At the ‘State Of The Airline’ employee forum last month current American Airlines President and incoming CEO Robert Isom laid out his vision for the airline. It was mostly about operating reliably as the priority that matters most. One line, though, struck me at the time. I didn’t write about it. Instead it’s been tossing around in my head ever since.
A passenger was arrested and banned by United Airlines after terrorizing Orlando International Airport’s gate 46 on Thursday. He was tasered and taken into custody, but has since bonded out of jail.
According to the affidavit supporting the man’s arrest, he assaulted a passenger and a United gate agent.
On February 3, a black woman flying Delta from Atlanta to San Francisco was asked to move to the back of the aircraft in order to make two white women more comfortable, giving them extra space in their row.
I’ve written for a year that the decision on ‘returning to normal’ which includes sunsetting the transportation mask mandate requiring masks be worn in airports and on planes would be a political one. Specifically, the mandate would sunset before end of summer so that the President could declare victory over the pandemic before the midterm elections. Control of the House and Senate hang in the balance.
President Biden’s pollster’s firm now is giving Democrats this same advice.
Delta Air Lines today announced that they have suspended codeshares with SkyTeam alliance member Aeroflot, which is 57% owned by the Russian government. I’m surprised it took this long. Beyond Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson there appears to be very little sympathy for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
One of the biggest frustrations airline passengers face is delays – but not just because they may not get where they’re going when they’d hoped, or even miss a connection along the way, but because they’re frequently kept in the dark about what’s going on. They don’t know when to expect they’ll actually leave, and often feel like they’re being lied to.
And they sometimes are lied to! But one United Airlines flight today offered a little too much truth.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Flight attendants unions are pushing to extend the federal transportation mask mandate which is currently set to end March 18. But their members are far from all on board.
I’ve heard from several flight attendants, and watched discussions in social media, where they’re up in arms over their union leaders pushing for this requirement – because they’re tired of wearing masks on planes themselves.
Marriott has shared that they’re dropping award charts in March and moving to dynamic pricing. We now know that the date this goes into effect will be March 29, though the transition will be gradual and spread into March 30. And we also know how much more expensive some properties may become.
American Airlines saved the day for a school group of 77 passengers stranded during a major weather event in Dallas.
The high school band from Missoula, Montana performed at Disney World. On the way back they were stranded at DFW airport, and forced to sleep at the airport for one night. And this was the first experience flying – and even leaving their home state – for many of the teens.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
